Chapter 154: Over-Publicizing Drama
As soon as the DC executives agreed on their pitting agenda, they were hard at work on making it happen.
The Moore and DC cooperation negotiation was still underway but the propaganda reports were already heavy in making it known to the comic book world.
Most headlines mostly center around Alan Moore joining DC and are set to make waves towards the existing superhero stories.
For a lot of fresh comic fans that were baptized through Creed Comics, someone like Moore was an obscure person. For nerdy veterans who knew the persona, the movement meant business.
However, influential or inconsequential the heavily reported Alan Moore was for the comic readers, the heavy publicity got everyone's attention.
Everyone was curious about what DC and the Alan Moore guy were up to.
It may seem like shooting themselves in the foot for bragging about what isn't guaranteed yet but it did have its catalyzing purpose.
For one, it did help out in increasing DC and Moore's awareness. There would be no doubt that the collaboration would gain traction when it finally goes underway.
DC did pay a hefty sum to make all the articles and news happen though and they had to have some gains from it. Hiding schemes in advertisement were quite a good multi-bird shooting stone.
It should also happen to force Moore into a corner and speed up the back and forth negotiation that was underway. Essentially, the over-publicity was a move to force wizard Alan into a limited number of options.
Either he joins or disappoint the people who were already informed of their so-called 'partnership'.
Poor Alan, who just wanted to tell his spin of comic books, could only comply with whatever DC wants to happen. His Rasputin and Santa ill-will were already present but he also joined in for the ride.
As underhanded and insulting the unsolicited move was, the idealistic artist in him was still pissed but didn't want to miss out on the chance.
DC had an array of superheroes and characters he could twist to his dark and anarchic will.
Moore could only compromise as the chance was truly hard to come by. In fact, he was already churning his artistic sensibilities as he re-read some notable DC comics.
In the end, the shady partnership deal was finalized and the prospects and goals of the collaboration were laid out for everyone involved.
Moore wanted darkened DC while DC executives wanted a point person to clash against the seemingly undisputed spearheader of Creed Comics.
-----
After that finalization was done and Moore on his meditation journey to establish his mark in DC history, another round of over-publicity was put out.
This time, it was still centered around Moore but a lot of shade was thrown and directed towards Alexander Creed.
The circulated article story dramatizes how hapless Alan Moore just wanted to work with his idol- the Creed creator. But the Creed creator was too arrogant and fearful of Moore's skill that he disregarded the man's sincerity.
Arrogant Alexander wanted to bury Alan along with his special talents and wanted the glory of being the best comic creator to himself.
It was way exaggerated that Twitter people can point out the flaws and curse them with #Fake. It was too bad that printed news was immaculate for people of the 80s and people can't help but fall for it.
There were heavy doubters of such a story though but they still sought to spectate because it was quite intriguing.
Drama was always intriguing for people and a devious scheme was set up to make a rivalry drama to be more attention-grabbing.
DC just had to ask their Warner parent for some news connections and some screenwriters who specialized in dramatic rivalry to make things smooth.
Alexander was painted as the enemy and Moore was the underdog that everyone could relate to.
Demonizing the enemy and hero-fying the allies is a tactic of comic book companies and it would seem that the Hollywood-catered executives of DC seem to be on board with that as well.
In any case, the pitting cage was set and everyone was awaiting the response of Creed Comics and arrogant Alexander Creed.
------
Most comic book-related media was hyping up Moore versus Creed that there was no way that the detached Alexander hadn't noticed.
The sudden influx of toy-comic book coalition for the past couple of days was surprising enough but the DC over-publicity really takes the surprise to the next level.
The fencing deliberations for noted artists were already out of Alexander's mind but it would seem that his competitors found some sort of leverage from it.
As Alexander was quite amused by it, the Creed editors were quite indignant. "Little boss, DC is telling to the world that you are an arrogant man who doesn't like others upstaging you."
"They have pretty much warped up the simple request denial that we gave Mr. Moore." Grumbled Mr. 5 who was now Mr. Editor 3. "If Alan Moore's story becomes a success under their banner, then their scheme to drag your reputation to the mud would probably come to full effect."
"Mr. Moore's success is his own. Why the need to drag me in all of it?" Alexander knew the answer but he just wanted to hear some of their opinions.
"It might be because Mr. Moore has a special storytelling style that DC thinks is something that you can't do and they can capitalize on." Ms. Editor 2 analyzed.
"The Moore style." Alexander contemplated and hummed for quite some time as he really didn't want to fuss up everything else but since they were asking for it, then they might as well get what they want.
Since Alan Moore was quite complicit and already on board with the DC madness, then the man shouldn't blame him if he plundered his most notable and historically implicating work.
"How is Mr. Legalities' work on the preliminary copyright of Dr. Manhattan and the rest?" Fortunately, Alexander had prepared for such contingency since the Alan and Image boys recruitment.
"It's in the all-clear, little boss." Mr. Editor 1 gave the 'OK' sign. Although they were indignant, they still knew a certain project file that can blow Alan Moore in a battle of style.
"Let's start the Flawed Heroes protocol then." Alexander just left it at that. Truthfully, he really didn't want to duke it out with other nuisances much but he needed to punch back lest they take him for a pushover.
Since DC is all about heroes, then Alexander would show them a darkened version with reasonable plausibility as they all plunged into the deep, treacherously flawed side of what heroes can be.
"Let's just allocate our workstations to make the story happen and make it our other showcase for March along with the Bizzare protocol." Alexander ordered after taking a certain folder from his special vault and the designated editors complied to quickly work on it.
The self-sufficiency of Creed Comics had already been established and the battle against DC could pretty much be done by Creed employees with the simple use of his outlined draft.
Alexander need only wait for the dark comic book face-off to truly happen while he had much focus to put into another field.
Comic Books are already fine on their own as the Bizzare and Flawed Heroes outline should be enough to trump every annoyance for the coming months.
Drama was good and all but it all proves futile when true push comes to shove. Alexander's preparations and methods for many contingencies should be enough to shut down most of what's about to come.